


Knowing a fictional language could be useful

by GalaxyPixel



Series: Trektober 2020 [27]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Aliens, Elvish, First Contact, New language, Not Beta Read, Trektober 2020, bones knows something
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:28:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27331933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalaxyPixel/pseuds/GalaxyPixel
Summary: The Enterprise Crew makes first contact with a new planet, but nobody recognises the language. How can they talk if they don't understand each other?! Until Leonard comes with a surprise
Series: Trektober 2020 [27]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1956337
Comments: 2
Kudos: 30
Collections: Trektober 2020





	Knowing a fictional language could be useful

**Author's Note:**

> So it's not as short I thought it would end up, that's a surprise. And let's pretend its still October when I'm publishing this. Also as you can see I love the LOTR movies, but I didn't include the language itself because that's too hard. Hope you like the fic!
> 
> Written for Trektober Day 27: First Contact

‘‘Captain, the universal translator doesn’t work with this new language. I have no idea what the inhabitants of the new planets are telling me.’’

Jim looked up from his padd and walked to Uhura. They were supposed to be in contact with a new planet, see if there could be negotiations for them to join the Federation. They were the first ship ever to make contact with the planet, this time the translator didn’t accept the language.

‘‘And what if you scan it, try to see if it looks like something?’’

‘‘Tried that already captain, but nothing comes up. It doesn’t sound like anything I’ve heard before, more like a made-up language if you ask me. I don’t think they can understand us either, so what now, captain?’’

‘‘Well, try to send down a message in morse code and some other forms of that. Maybe they can understand something. Have some of your communication people help, maybe one of them sees a connection. In the meantime, let us hear it on the bridge, maybe we can help too.’’

When Uhura played the message, Jim was stumped. He’d never heard the language before either, and it didn’t sound like a real language. More like something you’d hear in a movie.

When the same message had been played for a couple of minutes most of the crew on the bridge got bored of it. 

‘‘Okay, so we don’t know this one. That sucks. What do we do now?’’

‘‘You’re the captain, captain,’’ Sulu replied.

‘‘Don’t get sassy with me, lieutenant,’’ Jim looked at Sulu and smiled. He wasn’t mad at the guy, he understood his reasoning.

When the doors from the turbolift opened Jim was happy to see his friend.

‘‘Bones! Please tell me you have come to save us! This language the inhabitants of this new planet are using is confusing. Nobody knows it.’’

‘‘Jim, I am not the language person here. If Uhura or Spock doesn’t know it, why would I know it?’’

At that moment the message played again, and Bones face transformed from a scowl into a small smile as if he was thinking of a memory.

‘‘Based on your reaction it seems like you know the language, doctor,’’ Spock told their CMO.

Bones looked around the bridge to see the crewmembers stare at him surprised.

‘‘None of you recognise this? Heathens, the lot of you!’’ He walked over to Uhura and sat down next to her.

‘‘Give me that,’’ he pointed at her headset and started listening to the message. When he started talking back in the same weird language, Jim didn’t know his friend anymore. What weird language was this that Bones could speak but nobody else even recognised!

Bones looked around the bridge when he was done. 

‘‘I fixed it. We’re expected on the planet in three days. They were really eager to learn more about the Federation. I told them not many people knew their language, so we needed some time to update our translators. And I promised we’d take some language books down for them since their planet only has one overall language. So no worries, I fixed it.’’

‘‘Bones, you’ll make a great diplomat one day, I knew it. The more pressing question we all have is what language was that?!’’

Bones smiled and looked at Jim. ‘‘Remember the Lord of the Rings movies? With the Ring that had to be destroyed and the elves and orcs and dwarves and all? The elves had a language.’’

Jim nodded. ‘‘Yeah I know, Sindarin. But I learned some words, I think I would know it if I recognised it.’’

Bones shook his head. ‘‘I know. But there are two elven languages. This was similar to Quenya, the one that’s got just a few sentences in the entire movie trilogy. But yeah, it was like talking in a dialect, so I could make myself clear to them. I have the language in a book, so I’d need Spock’s help getting it in the computer to get it on our translators.’’

Jim grinned. ‘‘The one time you learn a fictional language from a movie and it is useful for you.’’

‘‘Next time just listen to me when I say we should learn things from movies, unlike your weird action stunts.’’

‘‘But Bones, those are cool stunts!’’

Bones smiled. ‘‘Yeah, but not useful at all. Anyways, Spock. Want to help me with transferring the language to the computer?’’

‘‘It would be my pleasure Doctor.’’

Jim looked at Bones and Spock leaving together and smiled. They found their common interest: An elven language.


End file.
